“I’m going to miss you. This is so soon, so sudden,” Preeti said, her shoulders slumped.
I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I may not be as loud, but you’ll still hear me all the way from Dallas.”
She laughed and wiped away a tear. “I believe it! Maybe you and Jay can check out the apartment together?”
That was certainly one way of breaking the news to him. As if Jay’s ear tingled from being talked about, my phone buzzed with a text message from him. I opened the picture and my heart melted.
Jay: Jahn took this picture when we weren’t looking.
I caressed the screen. What a perfect moment captured of us sitting on the bench seat in Shilpa’s delivery room. I held Josh in my arms and smiled down at him. Jay had one arm behind me, on the bench, his hand on my shoulder, his body against my side, his other hand on Josh’s head, a proud smile on his face.
Reema snatched the phone. “Is it a sexy picture from your heartthrob?”
“Oooh! I want to see!” Preeti landed on the couch beside her.
I didn’t fight them or the onslaught of aws that echoed around the room.
“This is so sweet!” Preeti crooned.
“Imagine if you two had a baby. This would be you!” Sana cried.
I sucked in a breath. My cheeks warmed. The ladies gawked at me. And here it came…
“Liya Thakkar did not immediately balk at the idea of having a child,” Reema said.
“I don’t want a baby,” I promised.
“But…”
I grinned and replied sheepishly, “But yeah, my ovaries kind of exploded at that moment.”
We flailed with hysterical laughter, holding our stomachs and wiping tears.
I hadn’t ugly laughed like this in a long time.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Jay
Did she like the picture?” Jahn asked.
“Yeah,” I replied and helped Ma cook in the kitchen at Jahn’s place.
“Is she coming over for dinner?” Ma asked.
“She said she would.”
“So, what’s going on?” Jahn asked.
“Nothing much.”
“I mean with Liya. You guys look pretty couple-ish there.”
“Yeah, with your baby.”
He grinned. Ma grinned. Even Shilpa grinned as she walked around burping Josh.
“Tell us, beta, do you think I can rest now?” Ma asked. “Not having to look for a girl to marry you. I’m getting tired of fighting off all these women asking about you for their daughters.”
“I think we’re good. Maybe not engagement anytime soon, but—”
“That’s enough for me.” She touched my arm. “Do you understand what a headache it is to find the right girl for you? Too short, too quiet, too far, too traditional, too much trouble…” She sighed. “I hope this works out and that you keep her happy.”
“You like her?”
“Of course I like her! Do you think I would’ve kept my mouth closed if I didn’t? Or that I would allow her to sit in our family dinners? Or that I wouldn’t have shoved her out of Shilpa’s delivery room?”
Shilpa cackled from across the room. “Ma would’ve kicked her out!”
Ma added, “Her parents asked for another dinner, you know, to sit down as a family and discuss if you two are interested in moving ahead with dating. She must not have said anything to them.”
“We haven’t discussed where we’re going. We’re just going. We’ll see when we get there.”
“That sounds very romantic,” Shilpa said and opened the door when the bell rang.
Liya’s energetic voice carried through the hallway. Ma hurried around the counter to greet her and hug her. Jahn and I watched, sort of dumbfounded. He grinned and pushed me toward her.
“Oh, hi,” Liya said when I was suddenly forced in front of her.
“Glad you could make it,” I said, moving my hands behind me because suddenly I didn’t know how to greet her in front of my family.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Really?” I asked, smiling.
“Yes. I must see this handsome little man named Josh. Gimme, gimme.” She went straight for the baby, and my family laughed at my expense.
Liya held him with natural affection, at ease, and smothered him in kisses, alternately saying, “So cute!” over and over. And then she broke down into baby talk, and Ma looked at me with arched brows and cocked her head, like, go get her pregnant right now!
Jahn cracked up and whispered, “Marry her first.”
Liya held Josh for most of the evening, even while eating. How could she not read the looks my family gave her?
“You’re attached to him, aren’t you?” I asked, sitting beside Liya at the table.
She ate while Josh slept peacefully in the crook of her arm. “Aren’t you? He’s freaking adorable.”
“My family is looking at us like we should go back to my place and do something about this baby business,” I muttered in her ear.
She paused, her cheeks pink. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes.”
“Not every woman wants to be a mother,” she said even as her skin flushed.
Shilpa took Josh to feed him when he squirmed and cried. Jahn helped Ma clear the table. I placed an arm on the back of Liya’s chair and whispered, “You look good with a baby.”
“You better shut up with that baby talk,” she warned, her mouth stern but her eyes playful.
I stroked her thigh under the table. “I mean if you want, I could take you home and put a baby in you.”
She laughed. “Hell, no.”
“You don’t want my baby?” I teased.
“You want me to have your baby?”
“Yeah.” I licked my lips and her gaze dropped to my mouth.
“How did we go from monogamous dating to baby-making?” she asked, tilting her head in amusement.
“You didn’t answer my question. You don’t want my baby?”
“You must have me confused with someone else.”
“That’s not a yes or a no,” I teased.
“I…”
I touched her cheek.
“Your mom is watching.”
“She’d love another grandchild.”
“Maybe. One day. Not this year. We’ve only…once…” she whispered.
“Then let’s practice.” I grinned.
“You are so much trouble. I’m telling your mom.”
“Telling me what?” Ma asked, and we both shut up quickly.
I moved away from Liya and cleared my throat.
Ma smiled and sat down in front of us. “I’d like to speak with you two.”
Liya sighed. “I know what this is about.”
“Do you?” Ma asked.
“About how much time Jay and I spend together. I knew that you’d eventually hear the gossip and step in.”
She waved off Liya’s remark. “I don’t care about what others say. All I need to know is that you’re dedicated to Jay as much as he is dedicated to you and that you won’t hurt him. It’s obvious to all of us that you’re good for him and that he’s crazy about you.”